Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive DARK KNIGHT RISES photos and cover!

I’ll be flying out to Los Angeles this summer to see The Dark Knight Rises with my friend Kareem (just as I did for The Dark Knight in 2008, and I wouldn’t see it any other way), and he’s already bought our IMAX tickets, which is 47 kinds of excellent.

(Thanks for doing all the footwork, Kareem. You’ve basically made it so that all I have to do is show up, enjoy wonderful hospitality from you and your family and friends, feast like a king on delicious California burgers and sushi, and watch Batman battle the forces of Bane for the soul of Gotham and its people on a screen as big as a planet.)

… featuring a Batman’d up Christian Bale, who says of his final adventure as Bruce Wayne, “I can tell you the truth because I’m done with it: I felt immense pressure, and I think it’s a good pressure, because you owe it to the films — and the people’s expectations — to make great work.”